Problems relative to wine properties and characteristics such as flavor, color, aroma and stability under standing or storage conditions have involved wines generally, and numerous procedures, such as those referred to hereinbelow, have been suggested in efforts to overcome such problems. The varieties of particular grapes and the areas where they are grown commonly bear substantially on particular problems in relation to the wines which are produced from such grapes. Thus, by way of illustration, the wine industry in the eastern part of the United States has had particular difficulty with the strong characteristics of its wines since the grapes from which these are made, commonly those of the Vitis labrusca species or variety, have a strong foxy or wild characteristic. Many efforts have heretofore been made to ascertain whether, through different wine-making practices or grape growing or by various treatment procedures, this characteristic can be eliminated or at least reduced to a point where the wines would have improved taste and stability characteristics such as, for instance, are present in Vitis vinifera type wines.
Furthermore, with the advent of shortages of power, the stabilization of such eastern United States wines by conventional or usual procedures, namely, by reducing the temperature of the wines by means of cooling through a heat exchanger to approximately 22.degree. F. and maintaining them at that temperature until the wines are essentially totally stabilized, has created substantial costs for various wine producers.
One particular, although illustrative, procedure for effecting stabilization which has been used involves the cation exchange of wines using sodium chloride as the regenerate for the cation exchange resins employed. This increases the sodium content of the wine substantially since the potassium ions are replaced with sodium ions, and, since sodium bi-tartrate is soluble in an alcoholic solution, the wine then is considered to be stabilized. In other words, the potassium bi-tartrate content of the wines is reduced to the point that no precipitation will take place during consumer storage or refrigeration.